Packages intended to contain a plurality of articles



Jan. 28, 1964 A. ADAMS 3,

PACKAGES INTENDED TO CONTAIN A PLURALITY OF ARTICLES Filed July 25. 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jan. 28, 1964 A. ADAMS 7 PACKAGES INTENDED TO CONTAIN A PLURALITY 0F ARTICLES Filed July 25. 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 //Y1 E/V7a/Q 9 BEKT 1412441 United States Patent 3,119,517 PACKAGES INTENDED T0 CONTADI A PLURALITY 0F ARTECLES Albert Adams, Sete, France, assignor to Etablissement flajex, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, a corporation of Leichenstein Filed .luly 25, 1961, $65!. No. 126,604 1 Claim. e1. 221-87) The subject of the present invention is a package intended to contain a plurality of articles and to permit each of said airticles to be issued separately, characterised in that it comprises means to maintain each of the said articles in the packed position, one wall of the said package being cut so as to lfOlIl'l as many unit lids as there are packed articles, each of the said lids being retained in the said wall by a part capable of being broken or folded by the consumer to enable the corresponding lid to be opened so that the consumer may extract or release, with the same hand which is holding the package, one of the articles contained in said package.

The said arrangement is advantageous for packing various articles in everyday use, particularly for cigarettes and cigars, and it is easy to provide such a package so that the articles are 'held in place separately and are therefore unable to move, even if the adjacent articles have already been released.

The accompanying drawing shows diagrammatically and by way of example, a number oat forms of construction of the package which is the subject of the invention.

FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 are elevation and plan views respectively, of a first form of construction of a cigarette package with portions cut away.

FIG. 4 shows in perspective, part of a spring used in the package according to FIGS. 1 to 3.

FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 relate to a second form of construction.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram, and

FIG. 9 illustrates a variant as to detail.

FIGS. 10 and 11 show two other variants as to detail.

FIGS. 12, 13 and 14 relate to a third form of construction of a package.

The package illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3 comprises two parts, namely a container 1, surmounted by a cap 2 including flanges which telescopically fit onto the same, the dispensing wall of the cap 2, which may be for example of plastic or of a metallic foil, having a plurality of article guides, in this case of inverted cup-shaped housings 3 projecting above the plane of the dispensing wall, each intended to contain one extremity of an article 4 of general cylindrical form, which might be for example a cigarette.

An elastic element 5 is arranged at the bottom of the container 1, the said element being constituted by a metallic toil cut and folded so as to exhibit tabs 6 directed upwards and tabs 7 directed downwards. Each of the tabs 6 is supported against the extremity of one of the articles 4 in order to push it against the cap 2.

Referring to FIG. 3, it will be seen that the bottom of each cup-shaped housing is formed to constitute a frangible lid of the cap 2 is out according to circular arcs so as to separate the lid 8 of each cup 3 almost completely. Nevertheless, each lid or cup bottom =8 is attached to the cap 2 by two thin portions 9 and Ill which are uncut.

When the consumer wishes to take a cigarette, he may press on a lid 8 which constitutes a unit lid for an article, so as to bring about breakage of the portions 9 and 10. In the course of the said operation, the article 4 is pushed slightly towards the interior of the package counter to the action of the elastic element 5. When the consumer releases the unit lid, the article 4 emerges due to the action of the elastic element, and may be grasped without dith- 3,119,517 Patented Jan. 28, 1964 ice culty as is seen from FIG. 2. In the said figure, it has been assumed that only one of the portions 9 and 10 have been broken, so that the unit lid 8 remains attached to the package by its other portion.

Of course, instead of pushing a base 8 towards the interior of the package, the consumer might also bring about breakage of one of the portions 9 and 10, for example by means of a pressure exerted with the fingernail. It will be seen that all the articles 4 are maintained suitably in position, irrespective of the number of those which have been extracted from the package.

FIGS. 5 to 7 relate to a variant construction wherein the cap 2 exhibits on its lateral walls a plurality of incisions to form hooks 11, only one of which is shown in FIG. 5. The said hooks enable an elastic sheet 12 ar ranged so as to surround the articles 4 to be secured to the cap 2 in order to push the articles elastically against their respective lids (FIGS. 6 and 7). The said foil 12 exhibits slots dividing its surface into a plurality of.

parallel strips 13 each surrounding two objects contained in the package. FIGS. 6 and 7 do not show the finished package and it is obvious that the assembly shown in the said figures would still require introduction into a container surrounding the foil 12 and at least a portion of the lateral walls of the cap 2.

In this form of construction, the lower extremities of two adjacent articles are surrounded by one and the same strip 13, and 'FIG. 8 shows the position which the said strip is intended to assume when one lid has been removed to enable one article to be ejected. In this case, it will be seen that the article 4, which is intended to be ejected, is not pushed exactly in the direction of the aperture of the package, but obliquely, so that a relatively high friction against the adjacent article is produced. This figure also shows the lower portion of a container 14 intended to contain the articles 4, the elastic foil 12 and a portion of the cap 2.

In order to eliminate the said drawback, the base of the container 14 might be fitted with a rib 15 as shown in FIG. 9. In this manner, the rib separates the extremities of the two articles surrounded by one and the same strip '13, so that the latter encloses each end of the two said articles separately and that the thrust exerted by the strip on each article 4 is in fact directed towards the aperture of the container.

Of course, various forms may be provided for the unit lid, and two examples of forms differing from that shown in FIG. 3 are indicated in FIGS. 10 and 11.

In FIG. 10, a form of unit lid has been shown which is well suited to the case where the cap 2 is constituted by a metallic foil, for example a comparatively rigid aluminium foil. The package is provided to contain two rows of cigarettes 4 and the lids are combined in pairs to cover one cigarette in each row. They are attached to the cap 2 by two portions 16 which are not intended to be broken when the consumer wishes to remove a cigarette from its package, but merely to be bent so as to constitute a hinge for the unit lid in question.

FIGS. 12 and 14 show another form of construction wherein the package comprises a foil 17 of adequate rigidity to constitute a substantial envelope for the articles to be packed. The said foil might consist for example of thin cardboard, such as Bristol-board, or again of a thick aluminium foil. The said foil exhibits cut portions 18 leaving between them tongues 19 intended to form unit lids for cigarettes arranged in a single row. The said foil also exhibits two slots 20 to allow passage of two tabs 21, and it is fitted on its periphery with portions 22 intended to be folded at right-angles to form lateral walls of the package.

A foil 12 of resilient material is secured to the foil 17 by fasteners 23. FIG. 11 shows the position into which the foil 17 is brought during fixing of the elastic foil 12, so that when the foil 17 is subsequently flattened, the elastic foil should be in a state of tension. In this manner, when the foil 17 is folded to form the package as shown in FIG. 14, the elastic foil 12 remains slightly remote from the base 24 of the package. When the two portions 25 and 26 of the package have been folded so as to be mutually parallel, the cigarettes may be intro duced by pushing them down to the base 24 counter to the action of the elastic foil 12, then the remainder of the foil 17 is folded so that the tongues 19 retain the cigarettes in position.

The tabs 21 are subsequently introduced into the slots 20 and secured, for example by glue, in order finally to close the package. The latter might of course be further surrounded by a transparent paper.

It is of course possible to apply numerous modifications to the packages described and to provide different forms of construction. In particular, the elastic element shown with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4 may be realised in difierent forms and might for example be constituted by small coil springs operating by compression, the said springs possibly being independent orconverselyfastened on a base plate intended to be positioned at the base of the package. Instead of springs, small cushions of plastic or of rubber, filled with compressed air, might also be used. It would also be possible to provide under each article a pad of rubber, for example of foam rubher, and all these pads might for example be made integral with a base foil intended to be placed at the base of the package.

According to a simplified variant, the elastic elements placed beneath the articles might be completely eliminated, in which case the consumer would have to invest the package in order to turn the wall bearing the unit lids downwards, so that an article emerged by the action of its own weight after the corresponding lid had been raised or removed. Even, in the latter case, however, it is easy for the consumer to extract a single article from the package, using only one hand.

In the case of a simple construction, the cap 2 might be provided of paper or light cardboard instead of being of synthetic resin or of metallic foil.

I claim:

A foldable blank for forming a package adapted to contain a plurality of elongated articles, each of which is to be dispensed individually, said blank comprising a first sheet of sufficient rigidity to form the bottom, top, and side walls of said package, said sheet having at that end which forms the top of the package a series of cutout portions transversely of the sheet and a series of rigid strips between said cut-out portions, said sheet also having at least one transverse slot between said cut-out portions and the edge of the sheet and at least one tab at its opposite end adapted to fit into said transverse slot when the sheet is folded into package shape, a second sheet of resilient material attached in a stretched condition to the inner face of said first sheet and overlying that portion of said first sheet which forms the bottom of said package, such that when said first sheet is folded into set-up position, said second sheet remains spaced from the bottom wall of the package and the space between said second sheet and the rigid strips of said first sheet is less than the length of the articles contained in the package, said second sheet provided with a plurality of spaced parallel sl-ots longitudinally thereof, and a plurality of article supporitng resilient strips between said slots, whereby when said package is filled and closed, the lower end of each of the elongated articles abuts a related resilient strip of said second sheet and the upper end of said article abuts a related rigid strip in the top of the package causing the resilient strips to yield under pressure of the confinement of the article so that upon the user severing one of said rigid strips, the released tension of said resilient strip will eject the article above the plane of the top of the package to permit ready withdrawal thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,086,065 McAdam Feb. 3, 1914 1,224,996 Baldwin May 8, 1917 1,957,293 Reilly May 1, 1934 2,143,866 Cromelin Jan. 17, 1939 2,803,376 Kampff Aug. 20, 1957 2,812,057 Brownfield Nov. 5, 1957 3,033,419 Le Bach May 8, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 456,453 Germany July 21, 1962 

